


Bucky of the Camellias

by Kissa



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Captain America: The First Avenger, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, admission, opera feels, the 40s, vintage escort Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 17:17:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7276906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kissa/pseuds/Kissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky sells something of his to give Steve a taste of the life he'd always love to be able to offer him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bucky of the Camellias

In the dim, piss-yellow light over the basin, Bucky is combing his hair. The walnut oil he caked onto the comb is just as good as Brillantine, if not better, and he’s got it from the pharmacy for helping old Mr. Zelkovich carry the crates of meds to the storage around the back.  
  
That’s where he met Gertie Phipps. Miss Gertie, as everyone calls her, is very rich and she had stopped by the pharmacy in their poor neighborhood to get a plaster for her foot, because she was breaking in a new pair of shoes from Paris.  
  
Bucky is nervous right now, because he gave his word and he’s having second thoughts. He doesn’t know why he’s scared, he shouldn’t be… but Miss Gertie is old and scrawny, and though she dresses well and wears make-up, there’s no hiding the seventy plus winters that passed over her.  
  
Bucky is taking her to the opera this evening, and if she has a good time, he’s going to get a lot of money. More than he’s ever seen in one place at a time.  
  
Bucky puts on the expensive suit Miss Gertie sent and for a second he loves what he sees in the mirror, though it is short-lived because he hasn’t really earned it. Not yet at any rate.  
  
He leaves the small apartment before Steve returns from art class and heads to the rendezvous point, where Miss Gertie’s chauffeur picks him up.  
  
  
Miss Gertie is already lightly buzzed when he picks her up at her home, and she keeps drinking from her silver flask. Bucky would love to ask for a sip of liquid courage too, but he doesn’t dare.  
  
He offers Miss Gertie his arm and they do the rounds, with her smiling and greeting her high-society friends and him nodding and greeting politely. People are whispering and women are shooting them envious, outraged glances. Miss Gertie is _glowing_ like a movie star.    
  
They have reservations for the best box on the first balcony and there’s a spot of light on them even when the lighting in the whole opera house goes out and the show begins.  
  
The opera they are seeing is “La Traviata” and Bucky nearly dies of shame when he realizes he is actually Violetta and Steve is Alfredo… until the twist in Act II, where Violetta is told she should leave Alfredo because he’s too good for her. Bucky feels the parallel is all too accurate and cruel: Steve was and is too good for him on any level, and although no one has told him to leave and no longer be around Steve, he still feels unworthy. By the time the opera ends and Violetta dies in a way that reminds Bucky of how Sarah wasted away, he’s crying and barely holding back loud sobs. His handkerchief is not enough to dry his eyes and nose and he looks deeply upset when the lights are switched on and everybody files out of the venue.  
  
The chauffeur drives them back to Miss Gertie’s and they talk animatedly about the show in the car. Miss Gertie tells him she’s had a lot of fun and that she’d like to do it again sometime soon. She gives Bucky a neat stack of bills, then adds another with a wink, and the car stops close to his home. He kisses her hand before leaving the car and she leaves with a giggle.  
  
“It wasn’t so bad for a first date,” Bucky tells himself, feeling the money, a solid, warm weight in his trouser pocket. This was definitely easy.  
  
He had been scared thinking he’d have to neck with the old bird or… more. He knows what things are like, usually. Poor boys don’t just get things handed to them.  
  
But apparently Miss Gertie has a soft spot for pretty young boys and the way she flaunted him at the opera was telling.  
  
When he arrives home, Steve is already in bed, reading, and he gives a wolf whistle as soon as Bucky comes into view.  
  
“Looking fine, Buck,” Steve says, eyeing him very attentively.  
  
Bucky knows this look, it’s Steve mentally measuring and tracing him so he can draw him later.

He takes the money out of his pocket and puts it on the table.  
  
Steve’s eyes go big. That’s rent for half the year, and his meds and groceries for the both of them too!  
  
“What did you do, Bucky?” He asks, sounding scared. There is no way anyone in Brooklyn pays this much for hard labour and Steve worries that Bucky did something stupid that will cost him dearly later.  
  
“I sold something of mine,” Bucky says, undressing carefully and putting the suit in their wardrobe, going to fix himself a slice of bread with butter and salt.  
  
Steve gets out of bed and joins him at the kitchen table, looking like a child’s ragdoll in Bucky’s oversized pajamas. Steve leans close and sniffs him, crinkling his nose.  
  
“You smell of Chat Noir, Bucky. Old lady perfume.” Steve says.  
  
There it is. Any moment now Steve’s going to snarl at him in disgust and tell him he never wants to see him again, because the evidence points to something despicable.  
  
Bucky has indeed sold something of his - his youth and beauty, which haven’t served him too much until now, so he had no hesitation using them for his gain the first chance he got.  
  
Now Steve thinks he made it with an old bird.  
  
Bucky knows what to expect.  
  
And yet Steve’s harsh verdict never comes; instead, the smaller guy gives a genuine laugh.  
  
“Well whatever works, Buck.” He says, still giggling softly. “One day I’ll afford you too.” Steve adds and Bucky’s heart does this weird thing where it jumps up in his throat, then plunges deep into his belly and shatters there.  
  
“Stevie… It’s not like that.” he says, after a long pause.  
  
“At least now there’s hope for me, Buck. I can’t wake up a dame one day and sport a fancy article, but money? That, I might just earn.”  
  
Now Bucky has a new problem. If he tells Steve he didn’t make it with Miss Gertie, Steve’ll think him a pervert and a cheater, for taking the money but not giving up the goods. And Steve just plain told him he wants him like that. But that ain’t right. Steve has to find a nice girl, get married, have kids.  
  
“I didn’t make it with Miss Gertie. She just wanted to show me off like a new horse to her opera friends. I dressed up and was the two-legged dog for the evening. That was easy money, give or take a few hours of being embarrassed as hell.”

“Bucky! Don’t do this again! Now she knows you feel in her debt and she’s going to ask more next time.” 

  
“And she might just get it, though it’ll cost her.” Bucky said, balancing on the chair he was sitting on. “If my looks can get us an easier life, why not? We’re barely making ends meet with hard work, the two of us.”

“I still don’t have to like it,” Steve says, looking like he’s about to cry.

Bucky abandons his chair and comes to kneel next to the one Steve’s perched on.

  
“What’s the matter, really?” He asks.  
  
“Bucky, I don’t even know… just that every time you make it with some girl I feel robbed. But at least I know you’re having a good time. If you start making it with old ladies, it’ll be sadder. I shouldn’t feel like this, but I do. I have nothing to offer you, I’m always sick and a burden…  yet I still feel rage when I think of you with others.”  
  
Bucky smiles and caresses Steve’s cheek, his thumb coming to rest at the corner of Steve’s mouth. He has never been able to keep a clear head around Steve. It’s enough for his small blond friend to pout even the slightest bit and he would do anything for Steve. And Steve has known him all their lives, has seen him with split lips, skinned knees, sweaty and grimy and still loves him, unlike everyone else who doesn’t see him at all except when they want to call him theirs and flaunt him to others.

Now _that_ ’s something no one can put a price tag on.  
  
Steve moves to the bed, but before he puts the distance between himself and Bucky, he gives the purest look of utter longing Bucky has ever seen.  
  
With Steve’s words, things changed between them. Yet, everything could stay the same until they both felt like they could move this thing, _theirs_ , to some other way of being.  
  
But for now, Bucky feels happiness wash over him as Steve scoots over and pats the free space next to him.  
  
“Get a move on, I don’t want you freezing in your fancy satin skivvies.”  
  
Bucky hurries to comply and gets into bed right away, to Steve’s exasperation.  
  
“... without the butter! If you get butter on the sheets, you’re licking it off.” Steve said, sounding unexpectedly stern.  
  
Bucky’s lip corners turn upward and he scoops some butter onto his finger, dragging it down over Steve’s lips.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a nod to "Lady of the Camellias", that "La Traviata" is based on. Opera feels. Bucky is basically Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I just figured Bucky would enjoy opera because most of the time he is depicted as a simple worker at the docks and I don't think that's all there was to him before the war.


End file.
